BATON ROUGE — The LSU track and field team hosts its second meet in as many weeks Friday as 13 teams descend on the Carl Maddox Fieldhouse for the Bayou Bengal Invitational. The meet will begin at 3 p.m. with the field events, while running events will follow at 6 p.m.
LSU will welcome several in-state schools including Louisiana Tech, McNeese State, New Orleans, Northwestern, Southeastern Louisiana, UL-Lafayette, UL-Monroe, in addition to Alabama-Birmingham, Central Florida, Southern Miss, Stephen F. Austin, Texas A&M and Troy State.
The Tigers, ranked No. 1 in the nation for the third straight week, are coming off a solid outing at the Purple Tiger Invitational last weekend. At the meet, the men’s team posted four first-place finishes as junior John Moffitt lead the way turning in his second straight NCAA provisional qualifying mark in the long jump. Moffitt’s jump of 25-8 3/4 currently leads the nation in the event.
On the women’s side, the second-ranked Lady Tigers enter the meet having posted two NCAA automatic qualifying times and four additional provisional marks. Junior Muna Lee owns both the Lady Tigers’ automatic marks as she has earned a spot at the national meet in both the 60 and 200-meter events.
Provisional qualifiers Lolo Jones (60 meters), Nadia Davy (400 meters), RaNysha LeBlanc (60 hurdles) and Mallory McDonald (weight throw) will all look to reach the NCAA automatic threshold in their respective events as they begin competition Friday.
Following the Bayou Bengal Invitational the LSU track and field team will hit the road, traveling to Gainesville, Fla. for the Gator Invitational, Sunday, Feb. 9.